Time-evolving coupling functions for evaluating the interaction between cerebral oxyhemoglobin and arterial blood pressure with hypertension

Abstract

Purposes: This study aimed to investigate the network coupling between arterial blood pressure (ABP) and changes in cerebral oxyhemoglobin concentration (Δ [O2Hb]/Δ [HHb]) oscillations based on dynamical Bayesian inference in hypertensive subjects. Methods: Two groups of subjects, consisting of 30 healthy (Group Control, 55.1 ± 10.6 y), and 32 hypertensive individuals (Group AH, 58.9 ± 8.7 y), participated in this study. A functional near-infrared spectroscopy system was used to measure the Δ [O2Hb] and Δ [HHb] signals in the bilateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC/RPFC), motor cortex (LMC/RMC), and occipital lobe (LOL/ROL) during the resting state (12 min). Based on continuous wavelet analysis and coupling functions, the directed coupling strength (CS) between ABP and cerebral hemoglobin was identified and analyzed in three frequency intervals (I: 0.6–2 Hz, II: 0.145–0.6 Hz, III: 0.01–0.08 Hz). The Pearson correlations between the CS and blood pressure parameters were calculated in the hypertension group. Results: In interval I, Group AH exhibited a significantly higher CS for the coupling from ABP to Δ [O2Hb] than Group Control in LMC, RMC, LOL, and ROL. In interval III, the CS from ABP to Δ [O2Hb] in LPFC, RPFC, LMC, RMC, LOL, and ROL was significantly higher in Group AH than in Group Control. For the patients with hypertension, diastolic blood pressure was negatively and pulse pressure was positively related to the CS from ABP to Δ [O2Hb] oscillations in interval III. Conclusions: The higher CS from ABP to Δ [O2Hb] in interval I indicated that the components of cardiac activity in cerebral hemoglobin oscillations were more directly responsive to the changes in systematic ABP in patients with hypertension than in healthy subjects. Meanwhile, the higher CS from ABP to Δ [O2Hb] in interval III indicated that the cerebral hemoglobin oscillations were susceptible to changes in blood pressure in hypertensive subjects. The results may serve as evidence of impairment in cerebral autoregulation after hypertension. The Pearson correlation results showed that diastolic blood pressure and pulse pressure might be regarded as predictors of cerebral autoregulation function in patients with hypertension, and may be useful for hypertension stratification. This study provides novel insights into the interaction mechanism between ABP and cerebral hemodynamics and could help in the development of new assessment techniques for cerebral vascular disease.